Commissioners fill 3 of 4 seats

The former Bay Medical Center board of trustees is now the Bay Health Foundation.

News Herald file photo

By MATTHEW BEATON / The News Herald

Published: Tuesday, January 15, 2013 at 10:07 PM.

PANAMA CITY— The Bay County Commission approved three of four appointments to the Bay Health Foundation on Tuesday, leaving a seat open that the commission would like to fill itself.

After voting on the appointments, the commission unanimously requested it be allowed to fill the empty seat.

Foundation member Frieda “Tink” Warren’s reappointment was rejected. The commission approved Harold Bazzel, Dr. Frank Merritt and Andy Stein unanimously. Both Bazzel and Merritt are new to the foundation, and Stein is finishing his first four-year term.

Warrenwas up for her second term and was the first of the appointments to come before the commission. Chairman George Gainer asked for a motion that she be approved, but none of the commissioners made one, so her appointment never came to a vote.

Commissioner Mike Thomas said after the meeting he didn’t want her on the foundation because of comments she made in The News Herald. In December, she said Bay Medical Center — now Bay Medical Center Sacred Heart Health System — was forced to go private because the commission wouldn’t put a hospital tax up for a vote.

“Tax support wouldn’t have saved the hospital, unless it was a huge amount,” Thomas said.

The hospital’s main problem was it received significantly less money on insurance reimbursements than other area hospitals, Thomas said.

PANAMA CITY— The Bay County Commission approved three of four appointments to the Bay Health Foundation on Tuesday, leaving a seat open that the commission would like to fill itself.

After voting on the appointments, the commission unanimously requested it be allowed to fill the empty seat.

Foundation member Frieda “Tink” Warren’s reappointment was rejected. The commission approved Harold Bazzel, Dr. Frank Merritt and Andy Stein unanimously. Both Bazzel and Merritt are new to the foundation, and Stein is finishing his first four-year term.

Warrenwas up for her second term and was the first of the appointments to come before the commission. Chairman George Gainer asked for a motion that she be approved, but none of the commissioners made one, so her appointment never came to a vote.

Commissioner Mike Thomas said after the meeting he didn’t want her on the foundation because of comments she made in The News Herald. In December, she said Bay Medical Center — now Bay Medical Center Sacred Heart Health System — was forced to go private because the commission wouldn’t put a hospital tax up for a vote.

“Tax support wouldn’t have saved the hospital, unless it was a huge amount,” Thomas said.

The hospital’s main problem was it received significantly less money on insurance reimbursements than other area hospitals, Thomas said.

“Us putting tax money in (Bay Medical Center) would not have helped that,” he said.

The foundation, formerly the Bay Medical Center Board of Trustees, oversees BMC’s employee pension fund, the hospital lease agreement and the disbursement of proceeds from the lease.

Thomas said he didn’t think there would be any negative repercussions from the foundation for rejecting Warren’s appointment. Foundation Chairman Don Connor said she was a popular member and it was “hard to say” if there would be bitterness over the commission’s decision.

Connorsaid the foundation will decide on its next appointment at its Jan. 28 meeting. For his part, he gave lukewarm support for appointing a commissioner.

“I certainly wouldn’t have a problem with that,” he said.

After the meeting, Warren said it was the commission’s “prerogative” to reject her but declined to comment further.

In the meeting, Thomas spoke out against the commission pushing for the open seat. He said it already had one appointment on the board, Chairman Don Connor, and he still has two years left on his term and by law the commission can’t remove him.

“I don’t think that we need two positions on the board, and we’re asking for that,” Thomas said.

He later said the commission requesting a second seat on the foundation is “us stepping where we don’t have any business.”

But commissioners Guy Tunnell and Bill Dozier pushed hard for the commission to ask for the seat.

“If we want to get someone on the board right away, I think we need to go ahead and make that request now,” Tunnell said.

After the meeting, Tunnell was unsure if the commission’s request would be successful.